


A Pirate's Life For Me

by tintern_abbey (lyricalballads)



Category: Newsies (1992)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Kid Blink backstory, Past Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-01
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:42:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27807763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lyricalballads/pseuds/tintern_abbey
Summary: Blink used to play pirate when he was a kid, before his eye got ruined. Talk about irony, right?
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	A Pirate's Life For Me

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally posted on fanfiction.net on 10/15/2011 and is based on the 1992 movie.

"What are you fiddlin' with your patch for?" asked Skittery.

He slouched on the street corner, cigarette in one hand and a stack of papers in the other, and shot a sidelong glance at Kid Blink.

Blink stopped touching his eye patch and shot a similar look back at Skittery. "What do you mean?"

"You keep fussin' with your patch. What, is it itchy or somethin'?"

"Nah, I was just thinkin', that's all."

"About what?"

"About your _mother_ ," said Blink, raising his fist for emphasis, like some kind of tough guy prizefighter, like he was just begging Skittery to bite back at him.

Skittery settled for a drag on his cigarette, blowing smoke in Blink's direction. Maybe he'd hit him in the face with it. _That_ would get him talking for sure.

Given the situation, Skittery figured it was in his best interests to keep Blink talking. They had snagged a great selling spot in front of Irving Hall, since the kid who usually had it was in the Refuge, doing three months for robbing a pretzel cart. Selling had been going a little _too_ well, though. So well, in fact, that Blink kept hinting at sneaking into Irving Hall to introduce Skittery to his girl Polly, who danced in the chorus line.

That was bound to go over really swell, especially if Blink suspected that Polly had already met Skittery. Had met him _thoroughly_ , backstage on a rainy day next to a heap of old stage props.

Jeez, that would just be Skittery's luck.

"Really, Blink, what's got you fussin' with that patch of yours?" he prodded, letting his half-smoked cigarette dangle from his fingers. "You been fiddlin' with that thing for an hour now."

"Hasn't been an _hour_ ," Blink shot back, but his mouth tugged up in a smile. A bitter smile, maybe, but still kind of a smile. "But all right, all right. I'll tell you. It's nothin' important. It's just... I was thinkin' about bein' a kid again. I used to play pirate when I was a kid, before my eye got ruined."

Skittery snorted. "I think there's a fancy word for stuff like that. Irony or somethin'. Heard Davey mention it the other day."

"Fine, irony. Whatever you want to call it. Anyway, I used to have this copy of _Treasure Island_ , with pictures and everything. It used to sit in this old cupboard, along with my pop's pipe and his bottles of booze, and I used to take it out and ya know, flip through the pages to look at the pictures. You ever do that?"

"No," Skittery said decidedly.

"Well you wasn't no fun. My ma would be sewin' in the corner and my pop would be workin' and I'd sit on the floor with this big book in front of me and—"

"Yeah, you told me that part already."

"Let me tell the damn story, will ya, Skittery? I looked at the pictures, like I said, and they all showed these fierce pirates with these big ol' hats and peg legs and eye patches. Typical pirate stuff, ya know? So then I got to thinkin' that when I grew up, I was gonna be a pirate. I'd be a pirate just like the fellas in that book, with my own parrot and an eye patch and everything."

Skittery coughed into his cigarette in a feeble attempt to disguise his laughter. "Looks like all you're missin' is a parrot, eh?"

"It ain't funny," said Blink. "I was just a kid. I didn't know no better. I still had two eyes back then!"

"You didn't wish you had a hook for a hand too, did ya?"

"It _ain't_ funny," Blink insisted.

"What'd you tell me the story for, if it ain't funny?"

" 'Cause you _asked_ , that's why. I wasn't gonna refuse no story to a fella who asked. Woulda kept my mouth shut if I'd known you was gonna piss all over it."

"You got to admit, Blink, it _is_ kinda funny."

Blink made a frustrated gesture with his hands, then threw his stack of papers onto the ground and promptly sat on them. An awkward silence pervaded the air, broken only by Skittery puffing on his cigarette, and at last Skittery ventured toward Blink with the roll of tobacco held out like a peace offering. "So, uh, what happened to that book of yours, anyway?" he asked. "The pirate book?"

Blink took the cigarette and stuck it into his mouth, then dragged on it bitterly. "My pop sold it about a year later, to buy booze or somethin'. He was always sellin' stuff to buy more booze, 'til he up and left one day. Then my ma was the one who was always boozin'."

"Sounds familiar," muttered Skittery.

"I know it's kinda stupid, but sometimes I wonder where that pirate book's at. I wonder who's readin' it."

"Probably some hopeless kid."

"Yeah, probably some hopeless kid," Blink agreed. He took another drag, then stared into the smoldering tip of the cigarette. "It was my ma who did it, ya know." He wouldn't look at Skittery. Kept on staring at that cigarette like he expected it to have answers. "My eye. She did it after my pop left. I don't think she meant to hurt me that bad, but she was boozin' a lot and I was horsin' around the apartment, 'til I knocked over her whiskey and spilled it on her dress. Her _only_ dress. That got Ma riled up. She was always riled up about somethin' after Pop took off. She would say things like, _You don't stop that wailin', boyo, I'll REALLY give you somethin' to cry about!_ " Blink paused, reaching up to brush a finger against his eye patch. "And one day she did."

A flicker of sympathy crossed Skittery's face. He shoved his hands into his pockets, his dwindling stack of papers tucked under his elbow.

"Jeez, Blink. Of all the crazy things."

"You gonna laugh at me now?" Blink asked quietly. He stared up at Skittery from his seat on the ground, his one visible eye burning bright. "Gonna have a good chuckle at the guy who got fixed by his own mother?"

Skittery met his gaze, perfectly stony-faced. "Does it look like I'm laughin'?"

"No. Guess not."

Skittery dropped his eyes to the cracked, dirty ground, feeling like thunderclouds were brewing overhead, even though the sun shone bright enough to blind a fellow. "My ma was lousy too," he muttered, wishing he still had his cigarette to hide behind. "Not as lousy as yours, of course, but... ya know, she wasn't no walk in the park."

Silence crept between them. Blink rose to his feet, brushing hair out of his eye, and sold a paper to a man with a walking stick. He still had Skittery's cigarette, smoked down to a stub, and finally let it drop from his fingers.

Skittery crept a little closer, not looking at Blink. "So, uh, how'd she do it?"

Blink ground his heel into the cigarette stub, idly smashing it into nothing. "Broken bottle."

"Where's she at now?"

"Hell if I know. Ain't seen her since she did it. Crazy world, ain't it? Little boy flippin' though a pirate book, then one day he's got to wear a patch for _real_ , and it ain't for fun and games. Ain't fair, is it?"

"The world ain't fuckin' fair," said Skittery, lighting up another cigarette.

"Ain't that the truth?" Blink glanced at the sun creeping past the tall buildings overhead, and something in his eye seemed hard and cold, despite the golden light hitting him in the face. He reached down into his pocket and felt the coins he'd gathered there. "Let's head down to O'Reilly's after this. I could use a drink."

"You buyin'?"

"Sure. Why the hell not?"

"Kid," said Skittery, exhaling a puff of smoke, "that's the best thing I've heard outta your mouth all day."


End file.
